“Why Whitby?” said Tylaya, as three spaghetti bolognaises were delivered to their table.
“What do you mean?” said the Doctor, taking another sip of his water.
“Well, in our time Whitby isn’t very significant. It’s a small little blip amongst the major cities and super-towns.”
“Just because it’s small, it doesn’t make it insignificant.”
“Yeah, we know that,” said Maxus, “but it’s not making any ripples either. Not in our time.”
The Doctor shook his head. “Do the people of your time not care for history? For the past?”
“Not really,” said Tylaya, twizzling some spaghetti around his fork, “it’s more about building for the future.”
“Hmmm,” said the Doctor disapprovingly. “You’ve seen ‘Nosferatu the Vampyr’ though, yes?”
“The film? Yes of course,” said Tylaya. “It’s a classic. One of the few films they didn’t convert to 4D.”
“It’s actual name is ‘Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens’, roughly translated as ‘Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror’. It was an unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’.”
“And in ‘Dracula’, he came ashore in Whitby, didn’t he?” said Tylaya.
“Yes,” said the Doctor. “In Nosfetatu, he goes to Wisborg instead where he is eventually killed.”
“So what’s it got to do with Whitby? This is Count Orlok. To all intents and purposes he‘s a cheap rip off of Drac.”
“Not so cheap if you mind,” said the Doctor, “but Whitby obviously has some significance.”
Maxus tucked into his food and pointed his fork at the Doctor. “She said she liked the film. Beautifully shot and all that rubbish.”
“Yes,” said the Doctor. “We need to look at where Count Orlok came from, not what he actually is. There are legends of vampires all over the world. All over the universe. This is specifically Count Orlok from the specific film. He’s not Dracula. He’s not a real vampire. He’s a work of fiction that has escaped a film canister.”
“That’s even more stupid that the idea of a vampire let loose,” laughed Maxus.
“Maybe so,” said the Doctor, “but those are the facts.”
Back at the Cook house Heather had decided it was time for bed. She never usually went to bed this early, but right now all she wanted to do was sleep.
She made herself a cup of cocoa and then went into the living room where Harry was sat watching the snooker.
“You off to bed, love?” said Harry, turning to look at her.
“I’m wiped out,” said Heather. “It’s been a long day.”
“You sleep well then,” said Harry with a little smile. “It’ll all seem better in the morning. Things are better now.”
“I hope so,” said Heather. She looked into the middle distance. “I know what I saw though.”
She made her way up the stairs and then to the front bedroom. She sat in her bed and sipped on her cocoa. Usually before bed she’d read a book, but right now she didn’t want to read. She didn’t want to find herself in another world tonight. She wanted normality. She wondered what dreams she would have.
She drained the last of her cocoa, turned off the bed side lamp and turned over in bed.
She wasn’t sure how long it was before she drifted off, but it can’t have been long. She awoke with a start a while later as she heard the door creak open. She had her back to the door and she heard footsteps across the floor.
Harry must have come to bed early, but somehow she felt safer with him being in the room. She smiled and closed her eyes. When she opened them she noticed the bedside clock, it’s digital readout showing 8.55pm.
8.55pm….
She had only been asleep for ten minutes….and she could still hear the TV downstairs. And then she heard something else that made her blood run cold. She heard the sound of Harry cheering at the snooker downstairs.
So if he was downstairs still watching the snooker…who was in the room.
Her heart was beating faster and faster and her blood ran cold. With every ounce of nerve she could muster, she turned over to face whatever was there.
And then she screamed.
The TARDIS crew were just finishing their meal when the dark streets outside the restaurant were illuminated with the blue flashing lights of a two police cars and an ambulance. All three of them watched as they zoomed past and then they turned to look at each other.
“Mrs Cook?” suggested Tylaya.
“Undoubtedly,” said the Doctor. “They’re heading in the direction of her house. Come on!”
They scrambled out of the restaurant, the Doctor dropping off a mass collection of coinage at the angry waiter, and splashed out into the rain.
By the time they had arrived at the scene, a stretcher was being carried out and Harry Cook was standing beside the door, his hand to his mouth and trying to force back the tears.
The Doctor dashed into the front garden where he was stopped by a young police woman with blonde hair and ice-blue eyes.
“Stop there, sir,” said the police woman, holding a hand up to him.
“And who are you, miss?”
“WPC Rita Cartwright,” she said quickly, “and you can’t be here right now.”
“Is she-”
“Dead?” said Cartwright, responding to Tylaya’s almost-question. “Yes, she’s very dead. Hence why the sheet is over her face.”
“Indeed,” said the Doctor. He was trying to catch a glimpse as the stretcher passed him. “Could I perhaps have a look at the body?”
“No you cannot,” said Cartwright. “Who do you think you are? A doctor?”
He looked at her and then smiled. “Thank you for your help, Rita.”
“It’s WPC Cartwright to you, sir,” she said as he and his friends left the garden and made their way back down the street. “Weirdo,” she muttered under her breath.
She sighed and then crossed over to Harry, who was shaking his head, still in disbelief at what had happened to his wife. She took out her notepad and sighed.
“Would you like to step inside, Mr Cook?”
He shook his head. “I don’t want to go in there.”
She nodded. “What was it that happened? Can you tell me what you heard or saw?”
“I didn’t see a thing,” said Harry. “I was downstairs watching the snooker when I heard Heather screaming. When I ran up there she was….” He started crying.
Cartwright closed her eyes. Somehow she managed to forget about the rudeness he had shown her earlier on and put that aside. Now he looked pathetic, standing there, a man of his age, crying about the loss of his wife.
“Is it okay for me to come back tomorrow and ask you a few more questions?”
“Why?”
“Because we need to know why your wife died,” said Cartwright, trying to sound as sensitive as possible.
He nodded.
“Are you going to be okay?”
He nodded and sniffed away the tears. “I’m going to have to be.”
She nodded, patted his shoulder and then made her way back to the car. She looked down the street for any sign of the strange man she had encountered, but he was nowhere to be seen.
It was getting on for 1am when the Doctor, Tylaya and Maxus arrived at the morgue. The rain had eased off, but the puddles still made the surface of the cobbles glisten.
All was quiet as the trio emerged into Foster street and the old, 18th century built building loomed over them like something out of a horror movie.
The building was two stories high and a basic square shape. In front was a small wall with tall iron railings on top to keep people out. The gates were higher than the fence and were flanked by two stone pillars with gold lions sat atop.
“Looks creepy,” said Maxus, echoing his fiancée’s thoughts.
“Just a bit,” she said, pulling her coat tighter around her.
“It’s just a morgue,” said the Doctor, crossing to the gate.
“Glad you find morgues un-creepy,” said Tylaya.
“They’re just a temporary resting place for the dead,” said the Doctor as he aimed his sonic screwdriver at the gates. “The dead can’t harm us.”
“If you say so,” said Maxus.
“I can’t stop thinking about that poor woman,” said Tylaya. “She was just there earlier in the evening, talking to us.”
“Yes,” said the Doctor as the gates clunked with a satisfying sound, “it’s all very sad. Goodness knows what her husband must be going through now.” He looked back at them as he pushed the gates open. “That’s why we need to find answers to this now. We need to stop Count Orlok before he kills again.”
Tylaya and Maxus followed the Doctor up the small flight of steps to the wooden door. The Doctor unlocked the door with his screwdriver and they made their way inside.
It was dark and cold in the entrance hallway, and the Doctor produced three torches from inside his pocket. The beams cast a friendly light around the place, but nothing about the building made any of them feel comfortable.
They made their way along the black and white tiled floor until eventually they reached the back where the bodies were kept.
Inside the Doctor managed to locate the relevant paperwork on a desk in an adjacent office, and then he moved over to compartment 7, set into the metallic wall.
“Do we have to?” said Tylaya, putting her hand on the Doctor’s arm.
“We need to examine her,” said the Doctor blankly. “We need to know if this is really Orlok that’s done this.”
He gripped the handle of the draw and pulled. A body emerged, gliding noisily against the metal runners. It was covered with a sheet.
The Doctor let out a long sigh, grabbed the sheet at the edge and then slowly peeled it back.
Underneath was the cold and lifeless body of Mrs Cook, her eyes closed, her lips blue and her lined face pale. Every ounce of life had been eradicated from her body.
“Poor woman,” said Tylaya, shaking her head.
The Doctor gently turned her head to the side, and sure enough, deep into her neck, were two, deep, dark red puncture marks encrusted with dry blood. She had been bitten.
“This can’t be happening. It can’t be real,” said Maxus, shaking his head and walking away.
“It is,” said the Doctor. “We need to accept it. Count Orlok is alive and kicking in Whitby.”
They had left the morgue and were heading back to the TARDIS. The Doctor had produced a test tube from his ever deepening coat pockets and had scraped a few flecks of dry blood from around the puncture wounds of Mrs Cooks’ neck.
They were heading back to run an analysis on the blood, when the Doctor spotted something out of the corner of his eye. Down a dark alleyway there was a person in a long, grey mac and a hat dumping a black bag into a larger, metal bin.
Nothing suspicious in that, thought the Doctor.
“Good evening!” said the Doctor with a cheery voice.
The person panicked and bolted towards the other end of the alleyway, disappearing out of site.
“Strange fellow,” said the Doctor.
“You’d freak anyone out, mate,” said Maxus.
“But why be so nervous about simply getting rid of your rubbish?” pondered the Doctor.
“It looked like he was trying to get rid of something,” said Tylaya.
“Shall we go and look?” said the Doctor.
He guided his two companions down the alleyway until they reached the bin. Then Maxus reached in and grabbed the bag.
They tipped it out onto the pathway in front of them, and with a metal clunk something fell to he floor amidst the potato peelings and food packaging.
The Doctor quickly grabbed at the thing and held it up in the orange glow of the street light.
“Is that what I think it is?” said Maxus, thinking back to his history classes back in his own time.
“It is indeed,” said the Doctor. “This was missing from the scene of the crime.” He examined the circular piece of metal with curiosity and then plucked a length of film reel from inside it. He gazed down at the film.
“Fancy watching a horror movie?” he said with a smile.
The rain had stopped, but it still felt cold, and this made him happy. The cold and damp made him happy. He sat as still as a statue halfway up the steps to the Abbey, staring out at the twinkling lights below in the town centre. In the distance the waves crashes against the bottom of the cliff and he smiled to himself.
He wasn’t sure how he had gotten here. The last thing he remembered was blinding sunlight and then...waking in a darkened room and biting that old woman. It felt good to drink again, but it also felt different. He felt alive, whereas before he had felt...nothing.
And now he wanted more. He was a long way from the Carpathian mountains and his home. He had travelled to Wismar to seek a new home, but this place was different. The light was different. The sounds. Everything so different from the life he knew.
And he hungered for more. He needed more.
The Doctor sat between Tylaya and Maxus on the sofa. He had contemplated making some popcorn, but he felt, what with the current murder investigation going on, that it would be in bad taste. Instead he made himself a small cup of Earl Grey and kept it at that.
He had loaded up the old projector he had found under one of the panels in the console room and pulled down the projector screen.
He got himself comfortable between his two companions and then pressed play on the remote.
But what they saw left them all dumbfounded.
Not one single frame of the film contained a shot of Count Orlok. The scenes were all there - including the reactions from the other actors and actresses - but Orlok was nowhere to be seen.
The Doctor whizzed through the film and checked over and over again.
When he finally switched off the projector Maxus and Tylaya were sat with puzzled looks on their faces.
“So, what, he just escapes from the film?” said Maxus.
“It would seem so,” said the Doctor, scratching his chin.
“How does that even happen?” said Tylaya.
“Oh, there are many ways it could be done,” said the Doctor. “Fiction gods, Make-Real-Men…”
“What?”
“The Make-Real-Men. Apparently they live in clouds and make your dreams come true.”
“Get away!” laughed Tylaya.
“Yes, well I’ve never encountered them myself, but I knew a couple on Bombay VI who lived into their 150’s just because they had an encounter with the Make-Real-Men. Allegedly.”
“How do we get him back inside the film then?” asked Maxus.
“First we need to find out how he did it. Then we can find out how to get him back in.”
“The person who dumped the film must have some answers,” said Tylaya.
“Yes. So if we find out who that is then we stand a chance of finding out who started all of this in the first place. In the meantime, Whitby has got a real life vampire running around it’s streets. We must be vigilant.”
The trio left the TARDIS and headed back down the street. They were about to turn the corner and head back to the librarians house when there came the sound of sirens in the distance. Tylaya and Maxus found themselves being hauled out of the way as three police cars skidded around the corner on the wet cobbles and headed towards the quayside.
“Come on,” said the Doctor, grabbing both Tylaya and Maxus’s hands, “this could be something.”
They made their way through the winding streets until they finally reached the quayside. A crowd had gathered around the front of one of the nightclubs - the Apollo - it’s neon sign casting an eerie pink glow on the cobbles below.
The police cars had parked up and Rita Cartwright was just emerging from the club, shaking her head. She went to her car and picked up her radio.
The Doctor edged a listen closer, just enough to catch what she was saying, but not enough to get himself noticed by the police officer. He had already had a run in with her that night and felt that another encounter wouldn’t do him any better.
“…looks like some kind of injury to the neck. A young woman in her early twenties. No ID on her, but she’s still alive. It looks like….” She hesitated as the voice on the other end of the radio urged her to carry on. “Well, it looks like she was bitten. Just like Heather Cook.”
The Doctor, Tylaya and Maxus looked at each other, and then the Doctor made a decision. He whipped out his psychic paper, ducked under the police cordon and held out the wallet containing the blank card.
“You again!” said Cartwright, switching off her radio. “You seem to be turning up at all the wrong moments, sir.”
“Read my credentials,” said the Doctor confidently.
Cartwright’s eyes flicked down and then back at the Doctor. “It says “John Smith the Vampire Slayer.”
“What?” said the Doctor, frowning and looking at the paper. He grumbled and shook the paper. “Look again.”
Cartwright sighed and did as she was asked. She frowned.
“See,” said the Doctor.
“I could have sworn.”
“What does it say?” said the Doctor with a knowing smile.
“It says you’re from UNIT. You’re their scientific advisor.”
“Exactly,” said the Doctor. “Now you may check the credentials with Brigadier Winters if you want, but there’s a girl in there with her life in perilous danger. I need to find out what did this to her and I need to find out now.”
Cartwright sighed. She wasn’t winning any victories tonight. “Okay, come with me. We’re going to have to be quick though. The ambulance is on its way.”
She led the Doctor, Tylaya and Maxus into the nightclub. By now the place was deserted and all of the lights had been switched on revealing discarded bottles, ticket stubs and a very sticky floor. Only the manager stood, kneeling over the young, red-headed girl with another two policemen looking on.
The Doctor crouched down beside her. “How do you feel?”
“In pain,” said the redhead with great difficulty.
“What’s your name?” said the Doctor.
“Rose.”
The Doctor smiled. “I used to know a girl called Rose once. Long, long ago. I like the name.”
“It hurts so much.”
“I know. I know,” said the Doctor. “The ambulance is on its way.” He brushed the hair away from the side of her neck. Two large, gaping wounds were still wet with her red blood. A bandage had been placed over them and that had stemmed most of the bleeding. “What did this, Rose?”
“It was a man,” said Rose, clearly still traumatized by the experience.
“A man? What did he look like?”
She started to breathe rapidly again, tears in her eyes. “He came out of nowhere. He was waiting in the shadows. He had a bald head and long finger nails.” She started cry.
“Easy, easy,” said the Doctor, stroking her hair.
They all turned when they heard the sound of the ambulance outside.
“It was a vampire,” came Rose’s weak voice.
“What?” said Cartwright, barely able to grasp what the young girl was saying.
“It was a vampire and he bit me.”
Ten minutes later and Rose was being stretched out and into the back of the ambulance. Cartwright supervised as the Doctor, Tylaya and Maxus sat on the wall along the quayside.
“Will she turn?” said Tylaya.
“Turn what?” frowned the Doctor.
“Into a vampire?”
He smiled. “It doesn’t work like that. She’s been bitten by a vampire that isn’t real. Count Orlok is just a film creation come to life.”
“But he can still hurt? He can still kill?”
“That much is obvious,” said the Doctor.
“But he’s not a real vampire,” said Maxus with a laugh.
“Well cold blooded murderers aren’t vampires either, are they? But they can still kill you.”
“He’s right,” said Tylaya, arms folded as her eyes watched the stretcher being loaded into the back of the ambulance. “He’s just as dangerous as any killer we’ve ever fought, Maxus.”
“And the point is he thinks he’s a vampire,” said the Doctor.
Cartwright had been listening in and laughed. “Don’t be so bloody absurd! There aren’t such things.”
The Doctor turned on her. “Miss Cartwright, two people have been attacked by Orlok tonight. One is dead because of him. Don’t tell me that there’s no such thing.”
“But it’s crazy talk. How can a film creation come to life?”
“How can spaceships fly? How can monsters exist. Just because you haven’t experience it doesn’t mean that it can’t be true or real.”
“You said he still thinks he’s a vampire?” said Tylaya.
“That’s right,” replied the Doctor, biting his finger nail.
“Then surely a stake through the heart will do it. Or waiting until the sun comes up?”
Maxus laughed. “Don’t be stupid. We’ve just established that he’s not really a vampire.”
Tylaya glared at him, her arms still folded. “He thinks he’s a vampire. So he thinks he can die by a stake.”
Maxus hadn’t seen that look before. He’d never even seen that look through Tylaya’s old eyes. He didn’t even bother to respond. She had turned to ice.
“I don’t want to wait until sunrise,” said the Doctor. “We must lure him out and then…”
“Stab him,” said Cartwright. And then she chuckled to herself. “This is insane!”
“Then stay out of our way,” growled the Doctor as he marched off.
“Where are you going?” called Tylaya.
“To the Abbey. He’ll most likely be holed up there,” he shouted back.
“Why?” said Maxus, a frown on his face.
“It’s where I’d go if I were a vampire. It‘s where Dracula went after all.”
Cartwright shook her head.
Tylaya turned to her. “Look, I know this is hard, but try and trust the bloke, yeah? He’s a bit weird. A bit of an odd ball, but he mostly knows what he’s doing.”
“That’s comforting.” Cartwright looked down and then back at Tylaya. “I need to go and question that girl again, but I’ve got to warn you to be careful. There’s a killer out there.”
“I know,” said Tylaya. “And we will be careful. We always are.” She turned to smile at Maxus, but he just looked away. The smile was wiped off her face instantly.
He sat t the top of the steps again, his knees drawn into his chest, his chin smattered with dry blood. They girl had tasted good, but he was hungry again. She had been too young. Too thin with nothing on her. Her blood hadn’t experienced anything of this world. It was full of drugs and alcohol and it made him feel sick.
But there was something else. Some other scent that he had tasted on the wind. Something…otherworldly.
He put his fingers to his mouth and then closed his eyes. He could smell them coming.
“How many steps?” said Maxus, gazing up as the old stone steps disappeared into the darkness.
“199,” said the Doctor, hands deep in his pockets.
“Not to make things even harder, but couldn’t they have rounded it off to 200?”
“Come on,” said the Doctor, “let’s go.”
The trip up the steps wasn’t as difficult as they had first feared. They were a bit slippery, but it wasn’t much longer before they were halfway up.
Tylaya and Maxus had gained considerable pace on the Doctor, who was lagging behind, clutching at his chest and gripping his walking stick tighter.
“You alright, Doc?” said Maxus, coming a few steps back down to meet him.
“Oh, yes,” said the Doctor, looking up and appreciating the fleeting moment of kindness that he rarely saw in Quinn Maxus. “It’s just this old body. Phew!” He wiped his brow. “I’m reminded of the time I first went to the Dalek city on Skaro.”
“Yeah, Doc,” said Maxus, suddenly returning to his couldn’t-care-less self. “We need to catch up with Ty.”
Both men gazed up the darkened steps, but Tylaya was nowhere to be seen.
“Ty!” shouted Maxus, his voice disappearing in the breeze. “TY!”
“Tylaya. Are you there?” said the Doctor.
Maxus looked at the Doctor. “We need to hurry!”
They continued up the steps, the Doctor fighting against every urge in his body telling him to give up. He couldn’t let Tylaya become another victim of Orlok.
Next time: Tylaya finds herself in a tricky situation in the concluding part. Coming Sunday 18th October 2014.
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